Empathy Is Not A Sin

      Lately, within conservative Christian circles, there has been a lot of talk about what they are calling the sin of empathy. The thinking goes that empathizing with someone who is doing something wrong is a way of condoning their actions. 

     What does the Bible say about empathy and whether or not it is a sin? First of all the Bible tells us in Romans 12:15 that we are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. We are to feel their pain and their joy. We are to enter in to people's heartache and happiness because that is a way of understanding what a person is going through. It is putting ourselves in somebody else's shoes so to speak. Paul will tell us in the book of Galatians that we are to bear one another's burdens. 

     Now, what does Jesus have to say about all of this, and how is He our example? The very act of Incarnation is an act of empathy. God became man. He came to be with us and to feel and experience what we go through. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. We are also told that He was tempted in all manners like we are. He understands what we are going through because He went through it Himself. 

     Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross. He became sin for us even though He knew no sin. That, to me, is the ultimate act of identifying with the other. 

     If someone is going through a hard time, they don't need to hear us condemn them. They need our presence. They need us to understand how they feel. And that understanding helps to inform how we respond. Let us remember in everything we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. And we are to do unto others as we would have done to us. 

     Empathy is not a sin. It is feeling what someone else feels so that we can be present and be a help to those in need and to those in pain. 

Thoughts On Romans 13

      Right now with the protests that are going on in the US, there are religious leaders once again using Romans 13 as the basis to say that protesting non-violently against the government is wrong. They are saying that standing up against injustice to immigrants is wrong because of Romans 13 and Christians obeying the governing authorities. With this in mind I want to repost a section of a sermon I posted several years ago dealing with this. 

 Romans 13 is a misunderstood and misapplied teaching. This section of Scripture in verses 1 through 7 has been used by oppressive governments to try to keep people from standing up against governmental injustice. Recently in my country, this passage has been used to justify the excesses of our government.
     In Romans 13:1-7, Paul tells us that God has established governments. Paul says that those who rebel against the government are rebelling against God. We are told that all of the authorities that exist are established by God for the purpose of bringing order. The governing authorities are to provide safety, and they are to punish those who are doing wrong. Paul calls on people to obey the government. Christians are to pay their taxes and give honor to the governing authorities.
     First of all, let us look at what Paul is not saying in this passage. Paul is not saying that every leader has been put in power directly by God.  Some in my country say that God put the current president in office. President Trump, President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton, whatever president was elected by the free will of the voters. The Lord does have the power to immediately remove any world leader if He should so desire, but people elected the leaders. Paul is not saying that God directly put each leader in place by somehow abrogating people's free will.
    Paul is saying that government as an institution for order has been established by God. God has not chosen to let society be in anarchy.
    Paul is not saying that Christians are to obey their governmental authorities in every aspect. We have to interpret Scripture by Scripture, and there are many instances in the Bible where people resisted the evil commandments of rulers. Let's look at a few of these.
    In the book of Exodus, the Pharaoh of Egypt ordered all of the Hebrew babies to be killed. Moses' parents did not follow this order. They hid Moses and preserved him from death.
    When Jezebel ordered the death of the prophets of God, Obadiah took many of the prophets and hid them in a cave so that Jezebel could not find them and kill them.
     In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar ordered that every one bow down to the idol that he had made. Shadrach,  Meshach and Abednego would not bow down. Even when threatened with the fiery furnace, they would not obey the edict of the king and bow down to a false god.
    Daniel went ahead with his daily habit of praying to God even though ordered not to pray by the Persian emperor. Daniel was thrown into the lions den, but he would not violate his conscience.
    In the New Testament, Peter and John were boldly preaching the message of Jesus. They were arrested and commanded to no longer preach in the name of Jesus. Peter told the authorities that it is better to obey God than human beings.
     We know that Paul was well aware of these instances, so we know that Paul is not advocating a wholesale obedience to the government even when the government is commanding that evil be done or that Christians stop practicing their faith.
     There are examples from outside of the Bible when Christians stood up for the Lord and stood up against injustice. During the time of the early church, some of the Roman emperors demanded that all people including Christians acknowledge that Caesar was Lord. Many Christians would acknowledge no Lord except Jesus Christ, and they suffered martyrdom.
     During the time of the Nazi atrocities, there were people who would not turn in those who the Nazis were trying to kill. There were people who hid their Jewish friends and neighbors and helped them to escape the clutches of the Nazis.
     In my country, there were Christians who stood up for justice during the Civil Rights movement. They believed that discriminatory laws were wrong. They practiced non-violent civil disobedience in order to bring about change and to bring justice.
     Right now in my country, there are some local communities that have passed laws making it illegal to give food to the homeless people that are out on the streets. Some Christian groups who work with the homeless have chosen to go ahead and provide food to those who are hungry. Some have been ticketed by the local police, but they have chosen to continue to feed the hungry and clothe the naked just as Jesus wants us to do.
     As Christians, we are to first and foremost obey the Word of the Lord. If the government orders us to do something that God has told us in His Word not to do, we must obey God rather than human beings.
     Now, what is Paul actually saying in this passage. Paul is telling us that as Christians, we are to obey the governing authorities. Just because we know that Jesus is the true King and we are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God, we still live in this world. We are to be upstanding and law-abiding citizens. We are to pay our taxes and follow the laws. We aren't to be above the law.
    There are some Christians who believe that they are not obligated to follow any law that is not expressly found in the Bible. These people refuse to pay their taxes and they will not follow laws such as the speed limit or local zoning regulations.
    Paul is directly addressing this type of attitude. We are to obey the law as Christians. We are not above the law. However, if the governing authorities act in an evil manner, we as believers must stand in opposition to that. If we are told that we are to violate a direct law of God, we cannot do that. This is what Paul is trying to get across in this passage.
    Unfortunately, this passage of Scripture has been abused by those who want to get Christians to go along with the injustices and wickedness that governments are trying to promote. If we look at this passage in the way that it should be rightly interpreted, we see that it in no way is calling on Christians to remain silent in the midst of injustice.